Samsung to ship 500 million phones, including new Windows Phones, in 2013?

In 2012, Samsung became the largest phone manufacturer in world, selling over 420 million handsets. According to an article in the Korean Times, they plan on increasing that number by over 20 percent, to a whopping 510 million phones, in 2013. The Korean electronics giant says that 2013 will be the year that they stand out from their biggest competitor, Apple.

Samsung saw huge success with their Galaxy line of phones, powered by Android. And while they will surely continue down that road, it appears that they will also be adding some more Windows Phone 8 handsets to the mix.

The Korean Times report says that "Samsung is planning to release a lineup of devices powered by Microsoft’s Windows 8 mobile operating system," which implies that there will be multiple phones joining the ATIV S in Samsung's Windows Phone family. Sadly, that is the lone bit of insight into Samsung's Windows Phone 8 roadmap, but it offers us hope for 2013.

The ATIV S is a strong offering, but being essentially a re-branded Galaxy S3, it seems like Samsung just wanted to get a Windows Phone 8 device out fast (even though that didn't happen). A new 2013 lineup of Windows Phone 8 devices could give us more originality from in the way of design and features.

Reader comments

Samsung to ship 500 million phones, including new Windows Phones, in 2013?

Samsung can spare us the spam-phones they flood the market with.
I recently had the pleasure of picking up a Sony XPERIA U and that thing - Android aside - is a pretty darn good design. If only Sony decided to make WP phones. The luminous bar on the bottom which changes color with the phone's current theme (and amazingly, the album art of the current song playing) would go perfectly with WP's accent colors; it's a shame Sony has no plans to make WP phones.

That's probably because Samsung knows how to flood the market with phones at a decent price point. Seriously, every career has the SIII and a bunch of other phones ranging from the low to high end. It is almost a no-brained that they lead in sales AND profit. For all their strength and production and distribution though, they have little to show in terms of innovation. They excel at making a feature packed device but the execution is often bland...all the forays they have made into software prove this. Their apps are downright terrible, BADA was awful, TouchWiz is horrid and the gimmicky features (S-voice, S-planner etc.) are mediocre at best.

This is probably why they make great WP devices. The hardware is quite nice and since they aren't allowed to screw around with the software, the device works flawlessly. Can't wait for a Note like WP.

This more likely is referring to Windows 8 tablets. Nothing in the referenced quote suggests anything about Windows Phone, unless there is more context in the story that is not shown here. Windows 8 is also a mobile OS.

At this point it seems likely that the only reason Samsung offers any Windows Phone device at all is that they are contractually obligated (or highly incentivized) to do so as part of their Android licensing agreement with Microsoft. They clearly don't have their head in the game.

I just don't get Samsung. Kudos to them for their success, but I have yet to be impressed with anything they have produced. I always thought the first few Galaxy phones looked and felt like tat.

My HTC just felt so much better in terms of build. It has also outlasted a number of Samsung phones that friends owned. One friend had a Samsung TV, lasted a week. My gf bought ones. Of their vacuum cleaners, that lasted a couple of months.

I love Samsung TVs. They have some of the best panels I've seen. Im not a believer in their cell phones. My Nexus S was pure junk. I liked it a lot, but it died in under 8 months. Its was as plastic as cheap plastic can get. I did love the display from the first time I looked at it. Samsung pays Microsoft a license whether they make an android phone or a windows phone. But they get to tailor the UI and create greater brand awareness on the google side, so they make more android phones. At best, with the current restrictions which I like with regards to windows phone, they may reach 70/30 % on the android vs windows devices produced. Some are better than none, but they clearly look at windows phone as a side project for relevancy.

Well its up to Samsung to prove if they ate serious. Nokia so far have three wp8 devices and one wp7.8 device.
Not to mention an incredible app store selection for lumia owners.
Frankly I can't se Samsung caring a bit about WP as long as they sell those galaxy phones like hotcakes.

According to T-MO tech that I spoke to last night that US -TMO is getting the ATIVs this coming month, I think that great seeing how it's the device that I want. I enjoy a large screen and I wasn't going to bite on the L810 one screen res and two 8gb and three I think it's an ugly looking thing.

Could be worse. Samsung is great at getting cross-platform support and cross-carrier support. They also push phones all the way down into entry territory (imagine affordable prepaid WPs) and up into super high end territory too.

Considering that Windows Phone 8 shares its kernel with Windows 8, they are not incorrect in referring to it as Windows 8 mobile OS. Plus, it was probably written in Korean, so the English translation would not be exactly as how we refer to it in English.

When I was trying to decide to go with GS3 or Lumia 920, I felt the 920 would be more durable without a case. Though the GS3 is thinner and lighter, not necessary a good thing if it is not strong. My colleague had a 2 month old GS3, he dropped it once and shattered the glass, though the phone still works. He's very careful with his gadget normally.

Same thing happened to my Galaxy Nexus. Only difference is, my phone did not fall. The screen just cracked out of the blue. The paint started to come off after only one month of owning it so I was forced to buy one of those ugly ass covers. Yeah it's thin and light, but I'd rather have a brick that won't crack.

Its like an inside joke between many many internet users, like +1 or like. Lol, it just means someone agrees, that's all. These things may not make sense (lots of times they don't), but many people use them.

Sorry Justinismaximus I forgot that my only reason for coming on to the internet was to impress you and your grammar police no life friends with spelling and grammar. I highly doubt that you couldn't understand what I wrote. Quit your crying.

Hey - if the bloggers/authors don't have to use good grammar and make sense, why should the readers have to use good grammar and make sense?

A new 2013 lineup of Windows Phone 8 devices could give us more originality from in the way of design and features.

Just my thoughts. And I'm not picking on this blogger in particular. They're all guilty of poor spelling and poor grammar on this site and most other web sites designed to put advertising in front of eyeballs. I've had one blogger claim he's too busy with his day job (blogging) to worry about accuracy (in the very same day job).

I give the readers a lot of leeway. Many are not native English speakers. And none of the readers are being paid to read these blogs.